Trade Secrets

This is a relatively new legal subject, so there isn’t much law out there. In December, 2011, a Pennsylvania federal court answered this question in the negative. In the case of Eagle v. Morgan, Linda Eagle, the founder of a company, Edcomm, had developed a significant LinkedIn presence closely connected to Edcomm. In 2010, Edcomm […]

When your trade secrets are stolen, you might sue the ex-employee who stole them, or the competing business that’s now in possession of them, or both. What’s an appropriate measure of damages when your trade secrets are stolen? It can be your lost profits caused by the misappropriation, if you can prove them. Or, it […]

3/7/2013 Update Below An important federal appeals court has determined that a Connecticut court has jurisdiction over a Canadian citizen whose only act in Connecticut was accessing information on a computer server located in Connecticut. In MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter, 702 F.3d 72 (Dec. 26. 2012), a Connecticut-based company, MacDermid, Inc., sued its former employee, […]

An important federal appeals court has determined that a Connecticut court has jurisdiction over a Canadian citizen whose only act in Connecticut was accessing information on a computer server located in Connecticut. In MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter, 702 F.3d 72 (Dec. 26. 2012), a Connecticut-based company, MacDermid, Inc., sued its former employee, Deiter, a Canadian […]

Trade secrets are aspects of your company that, if discovered/used by a competitor, could significantly impact your bottom line or your ability to compete in the marketplace. Recently, a federal court in Colorado held that even something that appears to be publicly known – in this case, a business’s Myspace® profiles and “friends” lists – […]

I have previously written about how courts will ask, when presented with a claim of trade secret misappropriation, whether the trade secret owner took reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of its information (see here and here). One of the most important ways to protect your information – and to later improve the chances of […]